One of the favorite haunts of Skylighters during their stay in the Newcastle area in 1944, the Central Station was staked out routinely by the men of those batteries located close to the city center since that was where the girls were. It doesn't take much imagination to picture the station waiting rooms and platforms crowded with confident young "Yanks" waiting for the mad rush of English girls just off of work. It was pretty obvious that British men didn't like this situation very much. The Yanks were said to be "overpaid, oversexed, overfed, and over here." The Americans countered this by saying the Brits were "underpaid, undersexed, underfed, and under Eisenhower." Below is a poem that was sent our way that was apparently recited by the English during the influx of American troops into the British Isles during 1942-44. It's from the point of view of an English girl who's had her fill of those bloody "Yanks!" In the photo at above left, which appeared on the cover of the December 1943 British edition of YANK  The Army Weekly, an English girl fights a "delaying action" by taking her sweet time applying her lipstick, while her "Yank" impatiently checks his watch (how quintessentially American!). How such scenes in pubs and music halls all over Britain must have stirred the ire of local males, who were, by comparison, poor, and couldn't compete with these brash, bragging "invaders."

THE INVASION OF THE YANKS

Dear old England's not the same.
We dreaded the invasion, still it came.

Though it's not the beastly Hun,
the goddamn Yankee Army's come.

We see them on the train and bus,
there isn't room for both of us.

We walk and let them have our seats
and then get knocked down by a jeep.

With admiration we would stare
at all the ribbons the Yanks do wear.

We think of deeds so brave and daring
that won those ribbons they are wearing.

But alas they hadn't fought the Hun,
no glorious battles have they won.

That pretty ribbon just denotes
they crossed the sea, brave men in boats.

They laugh at us for drinking tea,
but a funnier sight you'll never see

than a gum chewing Yank with a dumb looking face,
he'd raise a laugh most any place.

They moan about our luke warm beer,
say beer's like water over here.

Yet after having two or more
we find them lying on the floor.

You should see them try to dance,
they pull and hug and strut and prance.

When you're half-dead they stop and smile
and say "how you doin', honey chile."

It's enough to make Red Indians jealous
but Yanks are so civilized, so they tell us.

They will tell you, you have teeth like pearls,
they love your hair, the way it curls,

As Engineer-in-Chief to the successive railway companies, Robert
Stephenson was responsible for all structures under and over the
railway 1845-50 and was succeeded by Thomas Harrison. The station has
seen many developments and modifications over the years, with new
lines and connections extending the
earlier works to accommodate traffic needs. Perhaps the most
well known of these are the installation of the famous "Diamond
Crossing" at the east end of the station in 1893, which together with
other track and platform improvements increased the capacity for
through east/west traffic.

When built, the station had been virtually two terminus stations for the
York, Newcastle & Berwick mainline and the Newcastle &
Carlisle Railway. The well-known configuration of routes shown
on the map above was completed in 1906 with the opening of the King Edward
bridge, which meant East Coast mainline trains could travel
directly through the station without having to reverse. Since 1982
the north bank route to Carlisle has been truncated and trains now
travel over the King Edward bridge via Dunston.

The last 20 years or so has seen much rationalization, and although many of the
aspects beloved of railway enthusiasts have been swept away, the
Central station remains very busy in both mainline and local rail
traffic and the Tyneside Metro system.

The
above view shows some of the Station's track and signalling
developments for which the North Eastern Railway, and particularly
the area around Newcastle, was justifiably famous.

This view (c.1900) looks eastward towards the Keep and the East End
Diamond Crossing, then the largest junction in the world. Trains
diverged to the left, northbound to Edinburgh and the North Tyneside
suburban lines. The right hand route takes trains over the High Level
Bridge, crossing the River Tyne and on to the mainlines south
and the surburban lines to South Shields and Sunderland. At the
left can just be seen Newcastle No. 1 signal cabin (244 levers) which
was built at the time of the east end improvements (1893-1895),
replacing older cabins around the station. All signals and pointwork
at this time were mechanically operated.

The opening of the N.E.R.'s North Tyneside electric services in 1904 meant another round of new
developments. The trackwork at the east end diamonds was
simplified, but the major improvement was in the introduction of
power signalling using the Westinghouse electro-pneumatic system
which was completed after the opening of the King Edward bridge in
1906. This view (circa 1920) shows the gigantic No. 1 overtrack cabin (259
levers) which replaced the older No. 1 cabin in the previous
view. The Central Station was then controlled by three cabins; No. 2 was in the center of the station and No. 3 in the junction
of the Carlisle lines and the King Edward Bridge. These were, in turn,
replaced by one all-electric signalroom opened in 1959.

Here we see Newcastle No.3 box in the background. This view
taken in 1949 shows A3 Pacific 60040 Cameronian beneath part of the
famous signal gantry at the west end, which at one time boasted over
60 arms.

The High Level Bridge

Built under the direction of Robert Stephenson, the High Level Bridge, a two-level rail and road bridge, is
one of the great historic features of Tyneside. (The photograph above, reprinted courtesy Gateshead Library, was taken ca. 1890.) Officially opened by
Queen Victoria on 28 September 1849, the bridge was a vital
link in a direct East Coast route to Scotland, with trains reversing in
the Central Station, then still under construction. The bridge is 1,337 feet in
length and rises on stone pillars to 112 feet above the mean high water
mark. The ribs of the cast-iron arches are arranged in pairs and have
a span of 125 feet. The total weight of iron used in the construction
of the bridge is 5,050 tons. The
upper level carried three tracks until cut back to two recently; the
road level some 23 feet below it was opened in 1850 and is still in
heavy use today.